INPEX has spilled oil into Darwin Harbour, exposed offshore workers to dangerous mercury, and been prosecuted for under-reporting toxic emissions by more than 100-fold, all in the past 12 months.
A letter from the US miner raised hope that the jarrah forest inland from Perth would escape its strip mining for bauxite, but Alcoa is keeping its options open.
Emissions of natural gas, methane, directly to the atmosphere are about 80 times more warming than the same weight of CO2 over a 20-year period.
Unintended release of methane is a significant issue in determining the full climate change effect of gas production and use.
